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RPGCast - Episode 312: "RPG Open League"

We learn how to run a sports league. Then we cover the big new Final Fantasy announcement. Then we've got exciting news for the new Trails in the Sky game. Also, nothing of what I just said is positive.

I'd like to defend the Tekken series, including Tekken Tag and Tekken Tag 2, as worthy tournament/esport games. They're well-known as popular fighting games that are relatively easy to pick up and play, but difficult to truly master. A fighting game doesn't have to demand exotic, absurdly complex, degree-perfect joystick and button manipulations worthy of a surgeon for each super move to have depth and mind games.

That being said, segregating esports by gender is bull. Assigning certain games (Tekken or anything else) only to male or female-segregated esports is also bull. These aren't competitions where the physical strength difference between genders matters.

Segregating chess tournaments by gender is also bull. I searched the topic, and learned that only some chess tournaments are divided by gender. Many others are not, including some prestigious Swiss tournaments.

Money talks, and bulls walk. If segregating esports earns extra money, it'll keep happening no matter how much we protest. But if segregated esport tournaments are unpopular and ostracized, they probably won't earn enough money to become the norm. Here's hoping for the latter outcome.

Wtf happened? First the intro music played for a minute and a half, then during the first what've you played section, the guy is drowned out by an Extra Life ad...? Did Chris have a seizure while editing?

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"What the f--- is a Shakespeare?"
-Rico Valasquez, showing off why no one likes him.

Great show as always! I thought the JRPG discussion was interesting, especially the traditional turn-based thing. I think there's a point there -- people want some of that, and that's a lot of why Bravely Default appealed -- which suggests something in that vein might earn some respectable dollars, too. I think we'd like to see an improvement on that field, too, though; while Bravely Default has its issues, it was hailed for trying to improve on ye olde turn-based traditional JRPG, rather than simply providing it.

My limited experience with the RPGMaker games is that they can have problems: they can look rather basic and samey by virtue of the engine, but perhaps more importantly, the mechanics can be uninspiring and the story can feel unpolished and unedited. While some might be good, they can also have that lack of refinement that can really diminish the final product.

I don't think there is a serious lack of turn-based JRPGs being made but for multiple reasons a lot of these turn-based JRPGs are not being localized. Of course, the Trails in the Sky series is in the process of being localized but other ones are very unlikely to come at this point. A bunch of other turn-based JRPGs will never get localized because they were made or published by Sega (Shining Hearts, 7th Dragon series) or Konami (Suikoden PSP, Frontier Gate). Others were never picked up by a publisher who would bring them out of Japan (Sol Trigger is the only one I can think of at the moment but I'm sure there are more). Still, I wonder if a lot of people would have even played those games if they had been released here. I feel like the reason why people exploded over Bravely Default was not because it was any turn-based JRPG but because it was a turn-based JRPG with "FF job classes".

Still, technically turn-based JRPGs continue to be released in the West. SMT, Persona, Etrian Odyssey, Pokemon, Atelier, Neptunia, etc. are technically turn-based JRPGs, but I don't see a lot of people saying they have "traditional" turn-based battle systems even if the battle system may be the same attack/defend/item/magic that older JRPGs had. I feel like the "traditional" part that everyone focuses on is really the overall presentation and gameplay of the JRPG and not solely the battle mechanics. There's too much demon fusing, dungeon crawling, monster collecting, item synthesis, social links, etc. going on for them to be "traditional", maybe.